Broncos head coach John Fox said safety Renaldo Hill missed Thursday’s morning practice because of dehydration.

With Hill out and veteran Brian Dawkins on the sidelines until his contract is restructured, the two first-team safeties this morning were Darcel McBath and Kyle McCarthy. Rookies Rahim Moore and Quinton Carter were also not at practice while their contracts were being finalized.

One notable absence from the start of training camp is veteran safety Renaldo Hill, who is not on the field because of an undisclosed medical issue. (Update, 12:27 p.m.: Hill was out because of dehydration.)

Only players who passed their physicals and the conditioning test are allowed to practice.

The Broncos entered this offseason identifying not one, but two safeties as positions of need.

It can’t be all that shocking considering free safety Renaldo Hill, 33 in November, and strong safety Brian Dawkins, 38 in October, are scheduled to play at a combined 71 years old this season.

Through the first four rounds of the draft, the Broncos put both Hill, a dependable starter, and Dawkins, a possible future Hall of Famer, on notice. The Broncos took Rahim Moore, a ballhawk free safety, in the second round. The plan is for Moore to eventually replace Hill.

In the fourth round, the Broncos took Quinton Carter, a strong safety from Oklahoma. Eventually, he may replace Dawkins, who turns 38 in October and is hoping to play at least one more season.

It’s not likely the Broncos would start two rookies at safety. Moore and Dawkins would make sense. But keep in mind, the Broncos also have safeties Darcel McBath and David Bruton, who were selected in the second and fourth rounds of the 2009 draft.

By the time reporters were allowed into the Broncos post-game locker room Sunday night, the place was a ghost town.

A few players remained, getting dressed quickly and exiting out the back door as fast as they could. Several others remained in the training room until the locker room closed.

A handful of players did stop to talk to reporters, and the message from each was nearly the same.

Sunday’s 59-14 loss to Oakland revealed major problems with the team, things that maybe were glossed over after a good performance in a loss to the Jets or a even a bad performance against a good Baltimore team.

“We’re going to have to do some real soul searching here in the next couple of days because if we don’t stop the bleeding now, San Francisco is sitting there licking their chops right now. Everyone else in the league is going to be doing the same,” safety Renaldo Hill said. “We have to be ready to go. We have to find some way to get back on board.”

(Hill stood and talked to reporters for more than five minutes. Maybe it was closer to 10. He’s a standup guy that way, which is why he got a pass when he didn’t want to talk last week after the pass interference penalty).

Quarterback Kyle Orton and safety Nate Jones each also used the “soul searching” phrase, making me think Josh McDaniels used it in its post-game comments to his team.

“As a team we’re going to do some soul searching, and that’s all you can do right now,” Jones said. You have to look in the mirror, and be ready to break your neck for the guy next to you. We owe it to each other, to the fans and to the ownership of this team.”

Not sure how I missed this Broncos blunder on Sunday, but apparently the Broncos ran out only nine men to try to block Jets’ kicker Nick Folk’s 56-yard field goal attempt on Sunday.

Thanks to ProFootballTalk.com (and the NYDN’s Manish Mehta) for bringing this major oops to my attention.

I went back and reviewed the film of that play, and sure enough, the Broncos had only nine guys on the field. All of them were on the line of scrimmage — no one was back in the end zone in case Folk’s kick came up short.

Here is my guess as to who was missing: Nate Jones, and whoever was being asked to replace Robert Ayers. (Ayers is out with a broken foot). Jones is normally on the field on field goal block, as a gunner coming from the outside, and Ayers was one of the big bodies inside.

Would those two extra players have made a difference on Folk’s kick? Who knows. But it sure couldn”t have hurt.

With Broncos training camp over and two preseason games complete, we’re closing in on the first round of cuts (on Aug. 31) when the roster will go from 80 to 75, and we’re less than two weeks away from the major cuts, when the team will pick its 53-man roster.

Centennial _ Even while only paying half-attention to the Broncos’ practices this offseason, and then mostly on how the quarterbacks were throwing, the secondary kept jumping out at me.

By far, the Broncos’ most talented position is at defensive back. Champ Bailey is not far-and-away the most skilled player back there, anymore. He might still be the best, but not by much.

What makes this year’s group stand out, at least so far, is the addition of Nate Jones, noticeable improvement of Alphonso Smith, and this rookie kid named Perrish Cox. During a goal-to-go passing drill Saturday, Cox took some first-team reps away from Bailey at left corner.

Add those guys to a starting four of Bailey, Andre’ Goodman, Brian Dawkins and Renaldo Hill, plus 2009 draft picks Darcel McBath and David Bruton, and this secondary is loaded.

Having said that, there is still enough age in that starting group _ Bailey and Goodman will turn 32 before the preseason, Hill will turn 32 and Dawkins 37 during the season _ that this secondary will still need a pass rush.

Nicki Jhabvala is a Broncos beat writer for The Denver Post. She was previously the digital news editor for sports. Before arriving in Denver, she spent five years at Sports Illustrated working primarily as its online NBA editor. She also spent two years as a home page editor at the New York Times.